Torrential rains in Europe inundated Austrian villages Thursday, swept away tourists on Russia's Black Sea coast, flooded London's subway system and battered vineyards and olive groves in northern Italy.

Austria deployed 350 soldiers, thousands of firefighters and scores of Red Cross volunteers to help evacuate people from low-lying areas threatened by rising floodwaters in Upper Austria and the northern Waldviertel area of Lower Austria.
Near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, an unknown number of tourists and campers was swept away in floods.
In northern Italy, hail and heavy rain has battered much of the region, damaging wine grapes, tobacco crops and olive groves. Nearly 3 inches of rain fell earlier in the week in Brescia, near Milan � more than the average monthly rainfall for all of August.